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Local Drivers for Improvement Capacity pp 9–25Cite as

Organisational Perspectives on Schools and Change

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Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Education ((BRIEFSEDUCAT))

Abstract

The chapter builds on institutional theory and how it explains stability and change in organisations. Loose coupling is described as a common phenomenon to uphold a harmonious relationship between the demands of the external environment and the inner life of the organisation. Organisational development (OD) is presented as a framework to understand the work processes in school organisation when school leaders and teachers do improvement work. The concept of improvement capacity is defined in a socio-structural perspective, encompassing the infrastructure of the school organisation, the improvement processes, the improvement roles and the improvement history of the organisation. Finally, this is framed in a practice and sensemaking perspective. The organisational perspective is contrasted with the need to focus on the teaching situation. The concepts of means and goal-situated strategies are introduced, and four common means-situated strategies are described. We argue for the need for goal-situated strategies and underpin this with a social learning perspective.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education and Special Education, University of Gothenburg, Box 300, 40530, Göteborg, Sweden

    Ulf Blossing

  2. Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, Box 2947 Tøyen, 0608, Oslo, Norway

    Torgeir Nyen & Anna Hagen Tønder

  3. Faculty of Arts and Education, Department of Educational Studies, Karlstad University, 651 88, Karlstad, Sweden

    Åsa Söderström

Authors
  1. Ulf Blossing
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  2. Torgeir Nyen
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  3. Åsa Söderström
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  4. Anna Hagen Tønder
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Correspondence to Ulf Blossing .

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Blossing, U., Nyen, T., Söderström, Å., Hagen Tønder, A. (2015). Organisational Perspectives on Schools and Change. In: Local Drivers for Improvement Capacity. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12724-8_2

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